Replays

by mz » Mon Jan 27, 2014 1:44 am

Is there a way to get replays? I'm sure the historical data exists to replicate it. This would be a way for players to see what happened. It contributes to discussions and call-outs. This way it wouldn't be just a "he said she said" matter.

by **wardizzle** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 2:55 am

You could probably have TP save vectors and user inputs for each tank.

A 400-line .txt could probably cover ~20 minutes of gameplay.

by **zubby** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:13 am

utanks was going to do this... good idea

by **tournamentJESUS** » Mon Jan 27, 2014 3:39 am

this topic basically covers this idea (and others). i suggested a "kill-cam" that would show how a player died and apparently it was out of the question due to bandwidth restrictions or something like that. replays are probably a whole different monstrosity so i doubt something like that is realistically in the conversation.

:hmmm:

viewtopic.php?f=193&t=19397

by mz » Mon Jan 27, 2014 9:06 pm

Well actually this idea is a bit different than the kill cam. On the server there should be a log of all the player positions and firing and damages at any point in time. There can be an html client that takes this information and play it out. However, there's no need to play it from the player's original perspective. You can just play it like a movie from the "God" perspective where you can see the entire map at once (with all the tanks as tanks, not dots) and you can zoom in and out as you wish. I think it would be simpler than the game client itself (although still a good amount of work) since you don't need buttons to send any commands to the server.

In terms of implementation let me take a shot at a rough draft of how to start the code. For any point in time, I think the client needs the following info as a start:
1. Terrain, which is static and invariant to time.
2. Location of all fuels and equipment.
3. Location, fuel level, and equipment level and status (on/off) of all tanks.
4. Firing commands of all tanks.
Then maybe add in player perspective later if people find this useful. This info may not be logged on the server.

With the replays we can actually do a few more things from a community perspective.
1. We can judge player skills better. I hear a lot of "he quit low" and "he ran from raids" without any context. The replays will show what actually happened for everyone to see.
2. We can vote on a weekly top 10 plays.
3. We can consolidate tournament replays so there's no need for everyone player to record his/her own.